Leaders at Arab League summit push for Gaza ceasefire, pledge reconstruction money

Leaders at an Arab League summit on Saturday demanded increased pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza, and reiterated the 22-nation body’s rejection of US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over the enclave, oust its residents, and rebuild it as a coastal resort.

Iraq pledged $20 million to help rebuild the Strip at the event.

Speaking at the Baghdad summit, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas to abandon power in Gaza and surrender its arms to the Ramallah-based PA, which the terror group ousted from the Strip in 2007.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi urged Trump to “apply all necessary efforts” to reach a truce. He also said Egypt, in coordination with Qatar and the US, was “exerting intense efforts to reach a ceasefire,” adding that these had led to the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity on Monday.

Toughening up his rhetoric against the war, Sissi described Israel’s actions as “systematic crimes” aimed at “obliterating and annihilating” the Palestinians and “ending their existence in the Gaza Strip.”

He also said Egypt plans to hold an international conference for the reconstruction of Gaza “once the aggression stops.”

The summit comes straight after a Gulf tour by Trump, whose plan for Gaza sparked outrage and prompted Arab leaders to come up with an alternative plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.

UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Baghdad summit that “we reject the repeated displacement of the Gaza population, along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza.”

The UN secretary-general also said he was “alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more,” adding that “nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” and called for a “permanent ceasefire, now.”

The IDF said Friday that it had launched “extensive strikes” as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” more than 19 months after the Gaza war was sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far. The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Sanchez, who has sharply criticized Israel’s conduct in the Strip, said his government planned a UN resolution demanding an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s war methods.

The “unacceptable number” of war victims in Gaza violates the “principle of humanity,” he said.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the summit that his country backs the creation of an “Arab fund to support reconstruction efforts” after crises in the region.

“This genocide has reached levels of ugliness not seen in all conflicts throughout history,” he said in a speech that called for allowing aid to flow into Gaza. Al-Sudani added that Iraq will work on setting up an Arab fund for the reconstruction of the region, in which Baghdad will pay $20 million for Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Baghdad meeting would endorse previous Arab League decisions on Gaza’s reconstruction, countering Trump’s proposal.

During his visit to the region this week, Trump reiterated that he wanted the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone.”

Syria’s al-Sharaa skips summit after Iraqi objections

Iraq has only recently regained a semblance of normality after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders viewed the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.

Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, during the early stages of the civil war in neighboring Syria, which in December entered a new chapter with the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

In Riyadh, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.

Al-Sharaa, who was imprisoned in Iraq for years after the US-led invasion of 2003 on charges of belonging to al-Qaeda, missed the Baghdad summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.

A short statement released by his office did not give a reason for why he did not attend, but an invitation by the Iraqi government last month triggered sharp political divisions in Iraq, as several Iraqi Shiite militias had fought against al-Qaeda alongside Assad’s forces, making Sharaa a particularly sensitive figure for them.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani represented Damascus instead.

Sharaa did meet with Trump while he was in Riyadh on Wednesday, with the US president deciding to recognize the new Syrian government and vowing to relieve the crippling sanctions that the US had imposed on the Assad regime over a decade ago.

Trump said after the meeting with Sharaa that Israel had been informed of Washington’s plans to lift the sanctions. An Israeli official told AP that Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions overruled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appeal to Trump during a visit to the White House last month to keep the sanctions intact.

Trump’s meeting with Sharaa was the first meeting between a US and Syrian leader in a quarter century. During the meeting, Trump urged Sharaa to join the Abraham Accords, which normalized ties between Israel and four Arab nations during the US president’s first term.

Despite its misgivings, Israel has reportedly been holding secret talks with Syrian officials on the possibility. Sharaa confirmed last week that security-related talks were being held through mediators, though he did not comment on potential diplomatic relations.

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